Chapter 24: Entering Zi Lan Xuan Again

"Where are you going?" Jingwei lowered the brim of his hat.

"Zi Lan Xuan." Cheng Jiao felt guilty.

Jingwei looked calm as he drove the carriage towards Zilanxuan.

Cheng Jiao was scratching his head. Jingwei's performance made him feel like a scumbag!

When they arrived at Zilanxuan, Jingwei parked the carriage aside.

After Cheng Jiao got off the car, Jing Wei said, "I'll wait for you here. This is a fire meteor (firework shell) from the Xiang family of the Chu State. Take it."

Cheng Jiao took a deep breath and took the meteor. Fortunately, he came here to do serious business tonight, otherwise he would be so ashamed that he would die!

"I'll come as soon as I go."

Jingwei nodded, leaned against the carriage, and watched Cheng Jiao enter Zilanxuan with her delicate eyes, then closed her eyes to rest. In the past two days, she had to give birth to Xiaoyan and protect Cheng Jiao, so she needed to take the time to recover her spirit.

As soon as Cheng Jiao entered Zilanxuan, he saw Zi Nu looking at him with a smile.

"Oh! It's getting late, and Miss Zi Nu is still waiting for me. I'm so scared!"

He walked closer to Zi Nu, but before he could take any further action, he saw Zi Nu stretch out her slender hand.

"Sir, where's the money?"

The mature and lazy voice of the royal sister made it difficult for Cheng Jiao to refuse to answer this question, but it seemed that he did not have any money.
Cheng Jiao had a serious expression.

"Miss Zi Nu, I have something important to tell you."

Zi Nu folded her arms across her chest and walked up to Cheng Jiao.

Zi Nu, wearing high heels, is still a head shorter than Cheng Jiao, but her aura is just as great.

"I want to know how you plan to explain why you don't pay."

Cheng Jiao took a step forward and whispered in Zi Nu's ear in a low voice, "This is about Ji Wuye, so this is not a good place to talk."

When Zi Nu saw Cheng Jiao suddenly approaching, she subconsciously prepared to step back and teach Cheng Jiao a lesson.

But what Cheng Jiao said made her stunned. Ji Wuye? She was not unfamiliar with this name.

The heat coming from her ears made Zi Nu's ears a little red.

"In that case, Sir, please come upstairs with me to the private room to chat."

"Is this a date?"

"It doesn't count!"

Cheng Jiao entered a room that was different from the one he had entered last night. The furnishings in the room were still simple and elegant, and a spacious activity space was prepared for the guests. It was very suitable for playing a blindfolded hide-and-seek game with the girls, which would surely make people linger.

The only thing that was not beautiful was that there was a man in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.

He was dressed in black and gold, with his short gray hair held up by a dragon-patterned headscarf. The shark teeth on the wooden frame beside him reminded Cheng Jiao that he was indeed the descendant of Guiguzi, aloof and cold.

"I guess this must be the descendant of Guiguzi, Brother Wei Zhuang."

Cheng Jiao walked forward without any sense of nervousness. Uncle Wei, he was familiar with him!

"Are you surprised?"

Wei Zhuang, who still had his back to Cheng Jiao, spoke calmly, saying that being discovered was not enough to move him.

Cheng Jiao responded casually: "Looking at the Feng Shui structure of Zi Lan Xuan, it is in line with Gui Gu Zongheng's way, and is almost the same as what I saw in the book. I guess it must have been planned by Gui Gu's descendants."

"Young Master is really insightful, I admire him."

Zi Nu held the incense burner in her hand, placed it on the table, and adjusted it carefully.

Seeing this, Cheng Jiao said, "I heard that Miss Zi Nu is proficient in the art of incense. She once made a fragrance called Shuying Light Incense, which is very helpful for calming the mind and meditating. I wonder if Cheng Jiao has the honor to use this precious item."

Zi Nu's hand, which was tending to the incense burner, paused slightly.

"Sir, you know a lot. Aren't you afraid that the incense may be poisonous?"

Cheng Jiao smiled faintly: "It is said that dying under the peony flowers is a romantic ghost. Besides, Miss Zi Nu is so kind, she will definitely not hurt me."

Wei Zhuang turned around at this time.

"Oh? Really? You're confident?"

"If I wasn't confident, I wouldn't dare come here tonight."

"Sir, you just said that you wanted to tell me something about Ji Wuye. I wonder if you can tell me now?"

Zi Nu fetched hot water and started to make tea.

Cheng Jiao took something out of his arms and handed it to Zi Nu.

"Miss Zi Nu is an expert in tea making. My Snow-top Silver Shuttle will not be humiliated in her hands."

Zi Nu took the tea leaves handed to her by Cheng Jiao and took a sip.

"The Snow-topped Silver Shuttle produced in the frigid north is truly unique and far superior to the Snow-topped Silver Shuttle produced in the Seven Kingdoms."

"If Miss Zinu likes it, I will send someone to give her a box tomorrow." Cheng Jiao said generously. After all, he got it from his cheap brother Zhengge, and Zhengge didn't drink much, so it wouldn't be a waste to give it to him.

"Then it depends on what you said tonight, whether it is worthy for Zi Nu to take your beloved tea."

Zi Nu brewed some hot tea and placed it on the table.

Wei Zhuang walked to the table, knelt on the couch, and drank the hot tea in one gulp.

Seeing this, Cheng Jiao secretly complained that Wei Zhuang would eventually die of esophageal cancer.

The three of them sat around the table, each with a different expression.

Seeing the atmosphere like this, Cheng Jiao had no choice but to speak first.

"I just came from Ji Wuye."

Wei Zhuang raised his head, his sharp eyes piercing Cheng Jiao, as if if Cheng Jiao said something wrong next, he would use shark teeth to comb Cheng Jiao's hair.

Zi Nu, who was sipping tea, put down the cup, looked at Cheng Jiao, and waited for what to say next.

“He wants to work with me.”

Zi Nu's phoenix eyes narrowed.

"What kind of cooperation?"

Cheng Jiao slowly told a fact that was unbelievable to Zi Nu and Wei Zhuang.

"Replace Lu Buwei!"

Dark clouds covered the moon, a gentle breeze blew, the candlelight flickered, and the figures of three people kept interweaving.

"You agree?"

Zi Nu crossed her arms, tapped her arms with her fingers, and fell into deep thought.

"I agreed."

"why?"

"He offered it to me, and I really couldn't refuse it."

"What was it?"

"money."

"is it a lot?"

"A full 100,000 gold!"

"Do you believe him?"

"Of course, I don't believe it."

Cheng Jiao and Zi Nu asked and answered each other, and the brief exchange revealed a wealth of information.

Wei Zhuang asked, "Where did Ji Wuye get the money?"

Zi Nu was also very confused. A grant of one hundred thousand gold was not a small amount.

“That’s why I came here overnight.”

"You seem to trust us very much?" Wei Zhuang knelt down, his tone full of suspicion towards Cheng Jiao.

"I trust Miss Zi Nu. I also want to have a date with Miss Zi Nu."

Cheng Jiao said with a smile. Wei Zhuang was silent.

Zi Nu lowered her head and drank the fragrant tea from the Snow-Top Silver Shuttle, which seemed to have a slight sweetness.

Wei Zhuang thought of something.

"Could it be that Ji Wuye intends to embezzle the 100,000 gold military pay?"

Cheng Jiao was stunned. "Brother Wei Zhuang also knows about this?"

"I have my own intelligence. He seems to be very short of money and has become greedy for the military pay, so he has made a lot of moves."

"Oh, I see. But it's not military pay."

"What is that, sir?"

Zi Nu put down the teacup and focused her eyes on Cheng Jiao.

Cheng Jiao stopped playing tricks and pinned his idea on the Emerald Tiger, telling the story of Ji Wuye's plan to rob the entire Korean aristocracy of their wealth and control his way to the position of prime minister.

As Cheng Jiao continued to talk and demonstrate how to use teacups as gold coins, Zi Nu's mouth was unable to close and shock was all over her pretty face.

Wei Zhuang had already closed his eyes, trying to figure out how things would develop. The more he thought about it, the more his brows furrowed. Finally, he slowly opened his eyes, looked at Cheng Jiao, and spoke word by word.

"Ji Wuye, does he want to die?"

(End of this chapter)